Keeping Jazz Alive Concert Returns This Saturday
By Patrick DeVivo
From Keeping Jazz Alive
On Saturday, June 28th, Melrose residents again will have the opportunity to hear first-rate jazz performed locally at the Temple Beth Shalom on East Foster Street. The “Keeping Jazz Alive” concert series continues what has become an annual tradition celebrating the many forms of jazz, which is often called “America’s Classical Music.”
The concert series began approximately 15 years ago, and for the past several years, the work of organizing the event has been handled by Melrose residents Bruce and Roberta Gertz. Bruce Gertz is a professor at Boston’s Berklee College of Music and an award-winning jazz bassist, educator, and composer.
The series is dedicated to Irving Smolens, a long-time resident of Melrose, a D-Day veteran, and an avid jazz enthusiast. Smolens had little musical training, but his love for jazz in all its forms helped establish and maintain the series. Smolens never missed a “Keeping Jazz Alive” performance, and with his passing in 2015, the series was fondly named in his honor.
Gertz will be accompanied by musicians who have performed as part of the series in previous years: Cassandre McKinley, vocals; Sheryl Bailey, guitar; Steve Hunt, piano; and Gary Feldman, drums. Each musician is a renowned performer and educator.
While for some listeners, jazz might seem complex and inaccessible, Gertz hopes the concert series can be “an artistic experience that the audience can relate to and enjoy.” The program will include both vocal and strictly instrumental pieces and will be a mix of standards and original works.
Gertz feels that tradition is the “backbone” of jazz, and each performance builds on that tradition. Some jazz musicians replicate a song’s original form or at least hew closely to the melodies and harmonies of the original music while adding their personal improvised touches. Others go further and attempt to stretch a song’s original form into something uniquely their own, adding complexity and challenging listeners to go along with them on their improvised flight.
In any case, to fully appreciate jazz means being aware of tradition. “Go back to the blues first,” explains Gertz. “All non-classical, modern jazz composition is rooted in the blues tradition. Rock and roll, country, rhythm and blues, and nearly all forms of contemporary music can trace their origins to the blues.”
As someone who has been a music instructor for nearly 50 years, Gertz has a unique perspective. He has seen tastes evolve and musical trends appear, only to be incorporated into new versions of old songs. He’s encouraged by the many high school “stage bands” that students continue to form, as young musicians continue to study the traditional standards while also producing new and original pieces. He sees more interest in vocals, which could at least in part be due to the star power of Taylor Swift, as it was in the past with such vocalists as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, and many others.
Irving Smolens sought the pleasure that comes with listening to a wide range of music, and was open to hearing new compositions as well as new variations of old works. What really matters in the end, Gertz reminds us, is the emotional connection a listener develops with a musician and their music, no matter how simple or complex the music may be. This emotional connection is what can make listening to music such a joyful and satisfying experience. He hopes for many such connections between the audience and musicians on Saturday evening.
Doors open at 7:30 pm. Tickets for “Keeping Jazz Alive” are $25 in advance or $30 at the door. To make reservations for tables of six or more, contact jazznight@tbsma.org.